Dell Zino HD (Mac Mini alternative)
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Dell Zino HD (Mac Mini alternative)
Now available
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/10/dell ... n-ireland/
Anyone know the idle power consumption for this system? Dell 'live chat' is unhelpful, they just quote the peak power load back at you i.e. 65W & 75W
And of course: is it actually quiet?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/10/dell ... n-ireland/
Anyone know the idle power consumption for this system? Dell 'live chat' is unhelpful, they just quote the peak power load back at you i.e. 65W & 75W
And of course: is it actually quiet?
The product and store pages for the US are up and running. No idle power listed, but 65W load power with mobo gfx and 75W with the add-on HD4330....given the options for single/dual cores, wifi, blu-ray, tv tuner, and various HDDs, the baseline load power might be 50W-ish?
Could be a nice HTPC with MythTV.
Could be a nice HTPC with MythTV.
Jay posted a pretty comprehensive review of the board.
http://links.amd.com/ZinoHD
http://links.amd.com/ZinoHD
As for hard drive, it uses 3.5". There's a pretty lively discussion on this little thing on the AVS Forums. It definitely seems more promising than any of the available ION nettops.Jay Taylor wrote:Power Draw-
After bringing the unit back to work, I connected it up to a Kill-A-Watt meter to see how the power draw was going to be on this machine. Now, power draw did vary as expected based upon different use cases (DVD, streaming internet content, etc.). At idle (staring at the desktop), the system was using a mere 29W. When I streamed content from Hulu (via Hulu DT), the system was drawing about 40W while DVD playback was about 37W. With such low power operation, no high speed fans were necessary to keep this unit cool, bringing me to my next topic — noise levels.
Noise Level-
While I did not have a noise meter handy, it is worth noting that under all these circumstances, the box remained very quiet. Even in the quietest of rooms, the system is only barely perceptible. In most cases, I needed to put my ear within a few inches of the PC to hear it. I even left it on overnight in my bedroom and it was only noticeable if you were listening for it. Dell did an excellent job of keeping this PC almost silent.
Thanks, that's ideal It does look to be an excellent little unit, I am somewhat disappointed by the idle power - Mac Mini is only 14W (and double the price)ilovejedd wrote:Jay posted a pretty comprehensive review of the board.
http://links.amd.com/ZinoHD
Maybe a Noctua (or similar) fan would make it completely inaudible.I even left it on overnight in my bedroom and it was only noticeable if you were listening for it. Dell did an excellent job of keeping this PC almost silent.
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Keep in mind, power numbers supplied were out of the box. I did not tweak any settings at all to try and get lower power.IanM wrote:Thanks, that's ideal It does look to be an excellent little unit, I am somewhat disappointed by the idle power - Mac Mini is only 14W (and double the price)ilovejedd wrote:Jay posted a pretty comprehensive review of the board.
http://links.amd.com/ZinoHD
Maybe a Noctua (or similar) fan would make it completely inaudible.I even left it on overnight in my bedroom and it was only noticeable if you were listening for it. Dell did an excellent job of keeping this PC almost silent.
Nice to see you cross-posting, Jay. I look forward to today's testing.
Also, more build options and price fun on the Dell site today - I built a 3250e system with the same options using 2 different starting points and got a $50 diff in price.
Add standby/sleep power to your growing list of requests
Also, more build options and price fun on the Dell site today - I built a 3250e system with the same options using 2 different starting points and got a $50 diff in price.
Add standby/sleep power to your growing list of requests
This looks interesting to me. I'm thinking that it might make a good MythTV client.
My TV monitors are still analogue. Is there a way to convert the VGA signal to composite, component or SVGA simply? I've seen inexpensive cables that appear to do this but I suspect that they require extra non-standard signals.
The Canadian prices are quite a bit higher than the US prices.
My TV monitors are still analogue. Is there a way to convert the VGA signal to composite, component or SVGA simply? I've seen inexpensive cables that appear to do this but I suspect that they require extra non-standard signals.
The Canadian prices are quite a bit higher than the US prices.
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these are why I called Dell. I figured maybe the 1TB could be 2 2.5's.Hugh wrote:The drive options go to 1T. Do 2.5" drives come in that capacity?capecodbackup wrote: I called Dell to see what size hard drive was in it. They said 2.5". But you know, sometimes they are wrong.
All the drive options are 7200 RPM. Many 2.5" drives are slower.
So who is absolutely correct. Dell or the other guy. Even with a 3.5, an adaptor could be used for a 2.5 SSD if wanted.
Even quiet 3.5's have been at least twice as loud as a 2.5 in my limited experience.
Hmm, who would I trust? An IT professional who has a couple of these little puppies on-hand and has opened them up to check the innards or someone who answers phone calls based on canned responses (and if a canned response isn't available, makes one up)... It's a very big dilemma.capecodbackup wrote:these are why I called Dell. I figured maybe the 1TB could be 2 2.5's.
So who is absolutely correct. Dell or the other guy. Even with a 3.5, an adaptor could be used for a 2.5 SSD if wanted.
Even quiet 3.5's have been at least twice as loud as a 2.5 in my limited experience.
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OK, now I get it I did not have my facts straight. Did not realize that someone had actually done a tear down. So, next quesion is......... Why put a 3.5 in a small silent computer? more heat,= more fan = more sound.
I had a feeling the Dell guy was an idiot when the answer to my HD size question was, "It goes to 7200RPM". Sheesh !
I had a feeling the Dell guy was an idiot when the answer to my HD size question was, "It goes to 7200RPM". Sheesh !
There is the philosophy of "good enough".
Jay reports that the unit is darn quiet. So, the 3.5" drive is good enough, sound wise...and you can still cram more GB's for less bucks in a 3.5" drive. You could also pop in an 80GB Intel SSD as an aftermarket replacement. But then, the SSD costs as much as the entire box. <shrugs>
YMMV.
Jay reports that the unit is darn quiet. So, the 3.5" drive is good enough, sound wise...and you can still cram more GB's for less bucks in a 3.5" drive. You could also pop in an 80GB Intel SSD as an aftermarket replacement. But then, the SSD costs as much as the entire box. <shrugs>
YMMV.
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I was thinking of doing just that with the SSD. The Intel 80 G2 can be had for pretty reasonable.
Gonna read the tear down review now.
I think this would be a great computer to sell to clinets for their office whre they do surfing, Word,Excel, Outlook all day long. Takes up so much less space. I would like one for a second computer.
If they could get a nice Core I7 in there and still have it be quiet, it would be come my MAIN computer Would need the 8GB of RAM, of course
Gonna read the tear down review now.
I think this would be a great computer to sell to clinets for their office whre they do surfing, Word,Excel, Outlook all day long. Takes up so much less space. I would like one for a second computer.
If they could get a nice Core I7 in there and still have it be quiet, it would be come my MAIN computer Would need the 8GB of RAM, of course
Blog update- performance with the 4330 gfx card, Blu-Ray, etc.
By the way, I am not suggesting the unit is completely silent.
I just found it to be very quiet compared to other systems I have seen.
The heatsink is actally a passive heat pipe type design. However, sitting next to that is a fan that is blowing air out the back.
Here at the office (quiet, but still an office setting), I generally have to get within about 3" to hear the fans.
At home, if you listen for it, you can hear it. But if you are playing back content, the content easily overcomes any noise you might hear from the fan. Likewise, if you are just going about your business in a quiet room, you likely won't notice it.
I found that I had to actually listen for it before I noticed it. I even left it on overnight in my bedroom and it did not bother either my wife or I.
It is a pretty queit machine.
I just found it to be very quiet compared to other systems I have seen.
The heatsink is actally a passive heat pipe type design. However, sitting next to that is a fan that is blowing air out the back.
Here at the office (quiet, but still an office setting), I generally have to get within about 3" to hear the fans.
At home, if you listen for it, you can hear it. But if you are playing back content, the content easily overcomes any noise you might hear from the fan. Likewise, if you are just going about your business in a quiet room, you likely won't notice it.
I found that I had to actually listen for it before I noticed it. I even left it on overnight in my bedroom and it did not bother either my wife or I.
It is a pretty queit machine.
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However, one must take into account that "good enough" is not really what SPCR is all aboutCA_Steve wrote:There is the philosophy of "good enough".
Jay reports that the unit is darn quiet. So, the 3.5" drive is good enough, sound wise...and you can still cram more GB's for less bucks in a 3.5" drive. You could also pop in an 80GB Intel SSD as an aftermarket replacement. But then, the SSD costs as much as the entire box. <shrugs>
YMMV.
I guess that's the difference between me and others. Hence the YMMV end comment. If I can't hear it over the next louder source (ie: the 5.1 channel sound system), then it's good enough for me.capecodbackup wrote:
However, one must take into account that "good enough" is not really what SPCR is all about
Koolpc - There are tear downs posted in amongst the freakishly long AVS forum thread. Somewhere around page 50+.
Fourth post:Koolpc wrote:Link please? Thanks
ilovejedd wrote:There's a pretty lively discussion on this little thing on the AVS Forums.